


In Every Guise

by Kariki



Series: 13 Nights of Hartmon (Kind of) [3]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: 13 Nights of Hartmon, Everyone is a monster, Gen, Graphic violence isn't that graphic but some people might find it unpleasant, Hurt/Comfort, I like causing my fave characters pain, M/M, Team Flash make it up to Hartley, Wells is a literal demon, Werewolf, Werewolf transformations are painful, cheek kissing, owies, vampire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 15:02:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8406244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kariki/pseuds/Kariki
Summary: (Written for 13 Nights of Hartmon, Prompt: Creatures of the Night)
Team Flash just weren't prepared for a werewolf in their Pipeline.  It's only after it's too late do they realize they should have listened to the wolf's advice and his warnings.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone is a supernatural creature here - though Barry is still just a superpowered human which still counts - my paranormal geekiness says so. There are youtube videos dammit.

It shouldn't come as a shock to anyone to know that turning into a werewolf was a painful experience. Bones twisted and snapped, muscles stretched to cover them even as they were being pierced by the new bones that grew from nothing. Fingernails, teeth, skin, hair - all were rejected and replaced.

It was gruesome, horrifying, and painful... but afterward, it was amazing.

Usually.

Usually, the new muscles were strong and eager for use. Usually, a werewolf could run and pounce and chase and rip and bite and eat. Usually, a werewolf wasn't kept in a 10 by 10 cell deep in the heart of a failed particle accelerator. 

Usually, Hartley woke up after a full moon feeling pleasantly sore and relaxed, his body exhausted from the physical activities of the night. The nearest human experience he could compare it to would be the sleep one got after a good round of excellent sex.

This was not that feeling. This was _far_ from that feeling.

The first thing he noticed was how his body was all but screaming in agony. It felt like trails of fire crisscrossed his body, like his ribs had been crushed, like his muscles had cramped and twisted, unable to be used properly. 

The smell of antiseptic stung his nose and the lights almost blinded him when he opened his eyes. The cortex, though a blurry mess of blobs, came into view before a darker blob blocked out the light. 

"Hartley?" the blob asked.

Hartley blinked up at it.

Another blob appeared over him and lowered his glasses onto his face and the blobs turned to Cisco and Caitlin.

"Try not to move too much, Hartley," Caitlin instructed, her voice soothing but stern. A doctor's voice though it carried the command of winter in it. "You're still healing from last night."

Hartley blinked again.

"Do you remember last night?" Caitlin continued, a glimmer of doubt in the question. "You, um, you had us all worried after you changed..."

Hartley closed his eyes. Memories from before a change were always a bit foggy at first and the night in question would be a blank, but he remember what happened before. 

"I told you," Hartley winced as his voice cracked and his throat erupted in pain from being disturbed.

He had told them. He had told them the cell would hold his wolf form but it was too small and too empty. There would be nothing for the wolf to do, nothing to sate its instincts.

"We're so sorry, Hartley," Cisco spoke up, the vampire leaning down over Hartley. He tried not to wince at the smell of death that always drifted off the other man. "We should have listened to you. That was... that was freaking horrible."

Hartley had no doubt of that. He could feel it for himself.

"Told you," Hartley said again, trying to force his body to relax into the hospital bed despite the pain he was in. "What'd I do?"

Over him, Cisco and Caitlin exchanged guilty looks.

"You, um," Cisco started, looking at Hartley's chest rather than his face, "you turned and you... you started attacking the walls, which we kind of expected, but then you..."

"You started screaming and howling," Caitlin picked up, twisting her fingers in front of her, whiffs of cold air rising out of them in her anxiety. "W-we thought maybe that was normal. We never had a werewolf in the cells before but then you... you..." Caitlin swallowed hard, blinking back tears, "you started attacking yourself..."

"I thought you were just making shit up," Cisco interrupted, looking somehow paler than he usually did. "Trying to make it easier to escape or something. I mean, what kind of excuse is 'boredom'." Cisco winced when the words left his mouth. "Sorry, I mean... sorry."

"We had to get Barry to tranquilize you, he was the only one faster than you..." Caitlin continued, wiping her eyes before her tears could freeze on her cheeks. "There was so much blood, Cisco couldn't go anywhere near you and we couldn't bring you back here until you turned back because we weren't sure how long you'd be out in your werewolf form and... and..." Caitlin sucked in another breath. "We're all so sorry, Hartley."

Hartley looked between the two of them the best he could, the sickened vampires and the Jotunn healer, and shook his head.

"Wells?" he asked, his throat not any less painful for the short rest, "where was he?"

"With us," Cisco answered.

"He's sorry too," Caitlin informed him. "He and Barry will be back soon. Barry agreed to clean up the... the blood and Wells wanted to speak with him. Wells thinks he can find a spell to make your time of the month a bit... easier."

Hartley scoffed softly and almost cried out as his ribs protested.

"Wells is a demon," he hissed.

"He's sorry," Caitlin said again.

"We're all sorry," Cisco corrected.

Hartley didn't say anything else.

* * *

Hartley never found out if Wells had found a spell to make his full moons easier in his cell, though he doubted the supposed warlock had even tried, not that it mattered in the end. In the few weeks since Hartley's full moon in the Pipeline, the truth about Wells had been revealed.

The demon, because Harrison Wells was a demon, was still at large but his influence on their small group was gone. 

It was actually very gratifying to be redeemed in the eyes of his former coworkers and, now, friends. He had been telling the truth, even when no one had believed him.

Yes, very satisfying.

"We don't use the sub-basement for anything but storage," Cisco said, his cheeks flushed with blood from his recent blood bank meal, "and we can move most of that somewhere else. We don't really have much to store anymore."

"As long as there's no way for me to get out and I have a place to run around, I should be fine," Hartley assured him as they walked through the quiet, underground hallway. "I've been down here before, Cisco. I know it'll handle a full grown werewolf."

"Yeah, I know," Cisco rolled his eyes, "but I just want you to double check. Who knows what Wells had been doing in this place..." 

They both shuddered at the thought. They had only scratched the surface on what the demon had done so far, they could only guess how deep the damage ran.

"What did you do before?" Cisco suddenly spoke up, "During the full moon, I mean..."

"Growing up, my family had a large plot of land outside of the city," Hartley shrugged, "it was fully encased and guarded so we could run free. My father even had a herd of deer brought in so we could have something substantial to hunt."

As problematic as his family was, those full moons were some of the best memories he had. Being a wolf was simple, there was order and idiotic human ideology had no place in those dense trees and cool nights. A pack was family and his family was his pack.

"And... after?" Cisco asked, quietly.

"There's... a few places that will keep a werewolf locked up during the moons. They're not there for comfort or even for the werewolf's well being - they just kept you from killing anyone."

"Like the pipeline?" Cisco couldn't hide the guilt in his voice.

"No. They doses us as soon as we turned."

Cisco winced.

"It was better here though," Hartley shook his head, a bitter smile growing on his lips. "Before I figured out what Wells really was, he had a reinforced room created for me in his own basement. I thought it was to give me privacy and safety, that he cared about how my moons went. He just wanted me close."

"Why..."

"Werewolf fur and teeth are powerful spell components," Hartley scoffed, shaking his head, "and I was a free, willing source of them."

Cisco wrinkled his nose.

"I've no idea if Wells used me for anything else," Hartley continued, his stomach curling at the thought of what a being like Wells would have done with a captive werewolf at his disposal.

"So... so Wells knew what you'd do in a tiny locked room, didn't he?" Cisco asked after a moment.

"...He is a demon, after all. Causing pain and suffering is kind of what they're known for."

"... We're still sorry about that, Hartley," Cisco stopped in front of the thick sub-basement doors. "We say it all the time but we do mean it. We want to make it up to you."

"It's fine, Cisco," Hartley pushed open the door, "Let's just focus on... oh."

The sub-basement had been completely cleared out. The cement floor had been replaced by thick sod and large wooden support beams the size of trees had been built from floor to ceiling, fake branches jutting out of them. In the center of the room was a shallow pond about ten feet across. Tires, sandbags, and large rubber balls were scattered around the room, some hanging in the fake trees. In the corners of the ceilings were security cameras, every inch of the room covered by their surveillance. 

"We were working on it all last night," Cisco grinned, following Hartley into the room. "Barry ended up doing most of the building because, you know, time restraints, but me and Caitlin did a lot of the tires and bags and stuff. We hid some stuff around here too. We thought it'd give wolf-you something to do..."

Hartley looked around the room, the sod sinking pleasantly under his shoes.

"Is it... it's not too zoo-y, is it?" Cisco asked, running a hand through his hair, "we were kind of worried it'd feel like a zoo... We really wanted to make up for... everything."

Hartley laughed and shook his head. He walked back to Cisco and, before the vampire could object, he leaned in and kissed his cooling cheek.

"Thank you, Cisco."

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from this poem:
> 
> Little girls, this seems to say, Never stop upon your way.  
> Never trust a stranger-friend; No one knows how it will end.  
> As you're pretty, so be wise; Wolves may lurk in every guise.  
> Handsome they may be, and kind, Gay, or charming never mind!  
> Now, as then, 'tis simple truth  
> Sweetest tongue hath sharpest tooth!


End file.
